Obama: The Choice for a Stronger America Is Now Ours
by Cynthia McCabe | September 07, 2012
Pres. Barack Obama addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. on Thursday night. (Photo by NewsHour/Flickr)
Our country is now faced with a choice “between two very different paths for America,” Pres. Barack Obama said Thursday night in a stirring acceptance speech closing the Democratic National Convention and providing momentum for the final eight weeks until Election Day.
“Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known,” Obama said.
Throughout the roughly 45-minute speech, Obama outlined a vision of continued economic recovery, job creation, strengthened Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, and educational opportunities for all. It was a vision of a “basic bargain” in our country, that “everybody plays by the same rules, from Main Street to Wall Street” and that “hard work will pay off.”
“I will never turn Medicare into a voucher,” Obama pledged, referring to the Romney/Ryan plan to do just that.
“No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire with the care and dignity that they have earned.” He added, “We will keep the promise of Social Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to Wall Street.”
The President had sharp words for the Romney/Ryan plan to slash these programs by billions to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
“We can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class,” he said. “I refuse to ask middle-class families… to pay for another millionaire’s tax cuts.”
And he fired back at the anti-government rhetoric of the right wing:
“We don’t think government can solve all our problems. But we don’t think that government is the source of all our problems – any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles.”
Closing his remarks to thunderous applause in the convention center in Charlotte, N.C., and more than 50,000 tweets-per-minute online, Obama said, “This is the choice we now face. This is what the election comes down to.”
AFSCME members are ready to make that choice for Obama and will have tens of thousands of boots on the ground across the country in the days to come. Join us at AFSCME.org/volunteer.
